Saturday Night Live Season 3 Reviews - Best Ofs, Worst Ofs

Saturday Night Live Season 3: The Best And The Worst

Best Cold Open

Usually I don't like musical sketches but this year had Garrett Morris singing Danny Boy while texts scrolled in front of him and rocking out as Tina Turner in Rock Concert.  This year also saw the formation of The Blues Brothers who opened the 3rd Steve Martin episode.  The Miskel Spillman episode opened with Buck Henry getting angry with John for giving the 80 year old host a joint in Stoned.  My final pick goes to Audience Questions from the O.J. Simpson episode where Gilda read questions from the audience that were obviously written by the SNL writers.  A cold open so clever in its laziness.

Worst Cold Open

Political cold opens are usually the weakest in my opinion.  Which is why I didn't care for Chevy Chase bringing back his Gerald Ford impression for A Former President Speaks To The Nation or Dan's Nixon impression in Nixon's Book.  The Hugh Hefner episode started with Laraine Newman playing a bimbo in a nude bodysuit in Playboy Party Jokes.  My final picks are weak openings to weak episodes.  The Christopher Lee episode, my least favorite of the season, started with Locker Room where we learn that John is moving to Hollywood and changing his name and the Madeline Kahn episode kicked off with The Trial Of Lee Harvey Oswald where Jack Ruby hits Oswald in the face with a pie.

Best Monologue

There wasn't much better in 1978 than watching Steve Martin do some stand-up comedy and he did so 3 times in his 3 appearances.  Aside from Steve, Michael Palin came out as his manager to stuff some live cats into his trousers and Christopher Lee introduced trailers for some bad horror movies.

Worst Monologue

The monologue is the best test on whether you will enjoy an episode or not.  It instantly either boosts your confidence in the host or sends your expectations crashing down.  Chevy Chase always gets the show off to a slow start when he hosts, rambling, tripping over his lines and making faces.  Michael Sarrazin told a story about Abraham Lincoln being assassinated and he did so with very little comic timing.  Mary Kay Place read from her diary in a monologue that was very long and boring.  Art Garfunkel sang a song, which wasn't unpleasant but his chemistry with John when he interrupted the proceedings was.  Plus the guy got so many songs during the show, he didn't need to start with one.  My least favorite was probably O.J. Simpson who just talked about all of his accomplishments while wearing a conehead.  He never made any reference to the cone, he just wore it the whole time.  This monologue instantly made me think that this episode was gonna be a dub but it turns out the writers stepped up their game for the rest of the show.

Best Commercial Parody

This season brought us the premiere of Swill where Bill drinks mineral water straight from Lake Eerie and Little Chocolate Donuts where John eats a big breakfast of sugar before competing in the Olympics, two all-time classics.  I also loved PocketPal where Dan shows us a device that can detect airplane collisions mere seconds before they happen.  The O.J. Simpson episode gave us two really fun ones.  Mandingo II featured the host and the cast making out with one another and Hertz parodied The Juice's real commercial where he rushes to get a rental car only this time he is told that his car was given to Walter Payton because he had a better football season.

Worst Commercial Parody

I'm gonna start this category with Moth Masher a product that helps you laminate moths so you can carry them in your wallet.  It seemed like they wanted to recreate Super Bass-O-Matic but just stopped at the premise.  Another lazy one was Del Stator's Rabbit Hut where you can pick your rabbit out before you eat it.  Body Floss was almost too silly for me to like.  The cast rubbed lengths of rope across their bodies but judging on their giggly performances, I think they all thought this was really stupid.  SNL actually did a commercial for themselves in the Charles Grodin episode as Dan was seen typing on an airplane in Update Promo.  My last spot goes to Hey You the perfume for one-night stands which shows Gilda applying it just before going home with a guy who (both me and my fiancée think) looks like Norm MacDonald.

Best Sketch

Buck Henry punching a baby is the hardest I laughed all season.  In Stunt Baby he not only punches a baby but smashes its face into a grandfather clock, rubs its head against the crib and throws it out a window.  From the other Buck Henry episode I included Sodom Chamber Of Commerce where the Mayor of Sodom contemplates whether his city is notorious for the right reasons.  Theodoric Of York, Medieval Barber is a classic from the 3rd Steve Martin episode.  The Hugh Hefner episode was pretty bad but did include Sex In Cinema where Bill and Laraine play Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn making violent love to each other while still keeping in line with The Hays Code.  The Michael Sarrazin episode was also bad but did include one of my favorites of the season in Josh Ramsey, V.D. Counselor.  Michael Palin played Trigorin in The Seagull but did so while escaping from a trunk.  Christmas Story saw John and Gilda act out The Gift Of The Magi with an alternate ending.  Laraine showed us the artifacts of a Florida condo owner in Archaeologius.  Babe Ruth promises a dying Garrett to hit a home run with fun results in Great Moments In Sports.  My last spot goes to What Did I Say? from the Ray Charles episode where a group of really white people sing the Ray Charles hit which eventually transitions into the man doing it himself.

Worst Sketch

While I really enjoyed this season, it wasn't without its stinkers.  The Madeline Kahn episode almost made me regret my decision of watching this season.  That show had a few duds but I'll single out Bianca Jagger And Three Or Four Of Her Close Personal Friends and Silver Balls And Golden Pins where Madeline sang a song on top of a bowling trophy as the worst.  The Hugh Hefner episode was also an early bomb and included The Playboy Philosophy where Hef spoke to Plato about his magazine, among others.  The worst episode by far was the one hosted by Christopher Lee which included Speech Therapy where Baba Wawa learns to speak properly ala My Fair Lady and Vampire / Nixon where a group of vampire hunters kill the former president before he can write his memoir.  Mike McMack, Defense Lawyer had Steve Martin blaming a victim for her rape.  Penalty Box starred Michael Sarrazin and Dan as Canadian hockey players.  Sermonette was just Chevy Chase babbling nonsense for 2 minutes.  Celebrity Crackups featured the cast playing celebrities talking about their mental illnesses.  Finally, Sartskey And Hutch teamed up a police officer with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in a lifeless parody.

Best Recurring Sketch

Dan Aykroyd is behind all of these.  First, The Festrunk Brothers had him and Steve Martin as two foreign swingers without a firm grasp on the English language.  His Tom Snyder impression was fun each time out in Tomorrow.  We only saw Irwin Mainway once this season in Consumer Probe, a sketch that originated last season.  E. Buzz Miller showed up 3 times this season to show us erotic works of art, footage of animals doing it and exercise routines.  Finally, while we got The Coneheads probably one too many times this year, I really enjoyed when they appeared on Family Feud as well when Richard Dreyfuss discovered that they were aliens.

Worst Recurring Sketch

Not all of Dan's characters were great as I got really tired of Leonard Pinth-Garnell who showed us bad opera, musical theater and conceptual art.  Samurai Futaba worked when Buck Henry hosted but the O.J. Simpson episode featured the really lazy and uninspired Samurai Night Fever where O.J. and John hit the disco.  Finally, The Olympia Cafe was fun the first time but let me down on each subsequent appearance.

Best Musical Guest

It was really cool seeing The Blues Brothers on the SNL stage for the first time.  I'm curious to know what the average viewer at the time thought this was seeing as how this was before the duo had recorded an album.  Steve Martin jammed with The Dirt Band who were a really fun folk? bluegrass? country/western?  I'm not sure how you describe their musical genre but it was cool.  Billy Joel brought some energy to the Chevy Chase episode with his two songs.  Unfortunately, Taj Mahal only got one song in the Madeline Kahn episode.  The winner of this category is hands down Ray Charles who rocked his episode from beginning to end.

Worst Musical Guest

What the hell was Sun Ra?  The finale of season 3 ended with one of the most confounding musical acts I've ever seen.  I would say you have to see it to understand what I'm talking about but that would also mean that I'm recommending you watch it, which I would not.  The Michael Sarrazin episode featured two off musical bookings in Keith Jarrett a jazz pianist and Gravity a tuba quintet.  Libby Titus might have better songs than the one she sang as her singing voice was pleasant but this music was too sappy for me.  Finally, Gary Tigerman was introduced as a close personal friend of host Richard Dreyfuss, proving that nepotism will take you far in show business.

Best Weekend Update Desk Piece

Oh boy, did I hate Weekend Update this season.  Jane and Dan had little to no chemistry together and they both read their "jokes" with no comic timing.  The one bright spot in the season was their Point/Counterpoint segments that lightened things up and at least gave us a break from the terrible excuse for jokes they were telling.  As for the correspondents, I liked John Belushi naming an illiterate man the winner of the Weekend Update journalism scholarship because he hooked him up with a big bag of weed.  I also enjoyed Garrett Morris reporting on a black basketball player punching a white one and claiming it was another instance of oppression.  Bill Murray visited the desk many times, my favorite being when he interviewed Laraine and acted like she was a huge Hollywood star.  Speaking of Laraine Newman, she interviewed the five finalists for the Anyone Can Host competition in the Buck Henry episode.

Worst Weekend Update Desk Piece

Laraine Newman seemed kind of bored in her two Update desk pieces, the first where she showed a Vladimer Lenin snowglobe and the second where she demonstrated techniques to spot a liar.  Baba Wawa appeared via satellite to do the same shtick she's already been doing for a season.  Production Designer, Akira Yoshimura showed up as Lee Kim, a South Korean actor posing as a South Korean lobbyist.  Finally, I liked Roseanne Roseannadanna the first time she appeared, did we need to see her 7 times?  It seemed like she popped up in every episode with the exact same bit.

Best Film

Don't Look Back In Anger is a classic that's become more poignant with time as John visits a graveyard to see his castmates that died before him.  Swan Lake had ballet dancers and breakdancers boogie together.  Steve Martin toured some Hollywood Homes with a map he bought off the street.  The Five Finalists of the Anyone Can Host contest all visited Buck Henry in his hotel room to bribe him into winning.

Worst Film

Autumn In New York featured Madeline Kahn singing a song, which wasn't bad but it was in an episode with a lot of singing already.  The show puckered up to Hugh Hefner's ass when he hosted and The Story Of H seemed like a clip package that would play in a Hef museum rather than on a sketch comedy show.  Cold As Ice was basically a music video for the Foreigner song.  Finally, Life After Death had a couple of people talk about their near death experiences.

Best Special Guest

Andy Kaufman showed up 3 times and each time he was a highlight as the 3 episodes he appeared in weren't that good.  Hugh Hefner, Mary Kay Place and Art Garfunkel, respectively.

Worst Special Guest

Dame Edna was interviewed awkwardly by Madeline Kahn.  I blame her more for this bit not working as she didn't seem to know how she was supposed to react to the British cross-dresser.  The worst was Franklyn Ajaye who brought down the sketch average of the Ray Charles episode with his stand-up set where he talked about random Star Trek episodes.  Both of these guest performances seemed like they were stalling to fill time.

Best 10-1 Sketch

The last sketch of the night is usually my favorite but most of the episodes this season ended with musical performances so picking for this category was a little light.  Still, I loved Endings from the Chevy Chase episode where a sketch refuses to end and instead keeps moving to different and random places including Rod Serling, Truman Capote, heart attacks, The Land Shark and the archbishop.  The Ray Charles episode ending with Mr. Mike donating a Monet Painting in Mr. Charles's honor, but since the singer is blind, the painting just said "Please don't tell him!".  Roseanne Roseannadanna made her first appearance at the end of the Charles Grodin episode in Hire The Incompetent which also featured a great ending to the joke about Charles not being prepared to host the show.  My absolute favorite was the end of the Robert Klein episode when giant mutated crustaceans attacked the city and the studio in Attack Of The Atomic Lobsters.

Worst 10-1 Sketch

The last sketch of the night can also just leave you thinking that they had nothing else that week.  Phone Call ended the pretty lackluster Madeline Kahn episode with her and Gilda drinking and waiting for a man to call.  Danger Probe had Michael Palin and Garrett as Victorian fops meeting two bigots at a bar.  Then we got two sketches from the Farbers.  The Farbers At The Playboy Club had the couple visit Hef's nightclub and The Farbers Chanukah had the couple tell the story of The Maccabees to a gentile couple.

Best Host

Steve Martin was great in all 3 of his episodes but I'm only going to include him once on this list.  The Michael Palin episode was a bit of a letdown but everything involving the Monty Python alum was a hit.  Robert Klein hosted my favorite episode of the season and fit in with the cast perfectly.  Ray Charles was great in sketches and provided awesome tunes.  Finally, Charles Grodin showed up while missing rehearsal but it was obviously a planned bit by someone too hip for the room.

Worst Host

Art Garfunkel was smart enough to only appear in one sketch, but did he need so many songs and a musical guest?  Hugh Hefner fared as well as you would expect a non-acting host to.  Chevy Chase was better this season than he has been in subsequent seasons, but I still don't find him funny.  Michael Sarrazin only appeared in two sketches in his episode, one was great, the other was not.  The worst was probably Christopher Lee who is a great actor but not the right fit for a live sketch comedy show.  His delivery was slow, dry and missing all comic timing.

Best Episode Ratings

3.9 Stars - Robert Klein / Bonnie Raitt
3.8 Stars - Ray Charles
3.8 Stars - Steve Martin / The Blues Brothers
3.7 Stars - Charles Grodin / Paul Simon

All of these are classic episodes that I would recommend checking out.  The O.J. Simpson and Art Garfunkel episodes tied for 5th place.

Worst Episode Ratings

1.8 Stars - Christopher Lee / Meat Loaf
2.4 Stars - Hugh Hefner / Libby Titus
2.4 Stars - Chevy Chase / Billy Joel
Episode average for the season - 3.1 Stars
Just slightly above average but this was a damn good season altogether

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A cast ranking from best to worst